The Gingerbreadman - psychopath, sadist, convicted murderer and cake/biscuit - is loose on the streets of Reading. It isn't Jack Spratt's case. Despite the success of the Humpty Dumpty investigation, the well publicised failure to prevent Red Riding-Hood and her Gran being eaten once again plunges the Nursery Crime Division into controversy. Enforced non-involvement with the Gingerbreadman hunt looks to be frustrating until a chance encounter at the oddly familiar Deja-Vu Club leads them onto the hunt for missing journalist Henrietta 'Goldy' Hatchett, star reporter for The Daily Toad". The last witnesses to see her alive were The Three Bears, comfortably living out a life of rural solitude in Andersen's wood. But all is not what it seems. Are the unexplained explosions around the globe somehow related to missing nuclear scientist Angus McGuffin? Is cucumber-growing really that dangerous? Why are National Security involved? But most important of all: How could the bears' porridge be at such disparate temperatures when they were poured at the same time?

by Jasper Fforde

A Little Boring, Still So Creative

I absolutely LOVE this author's style. Anyone who can take nursery rhymes and create murder mysteries replete with humor and satire is a major plus in my book.
In the second installment of the Nursery ...continue

I absolutely LOVE this author's style. Anyone who can take nursery rhymes and create murder mysteries replete with humor and satire is a major plus in my book.
In the second installment of the Nursery Crime series, Goldilocks and the Three Bears are caught in a national conspiracy and the Gingerbread Man is blood thirsty as ever. Obviously this is not a nail-biter (unless you suffer from Mother Goose phobia) but it is certainly clever.
My only issue is that there are times when the story was a little boring and nothing irks me more in a mystery than when characters are introduced at the last minute who end up playing a pivotal role in the plot. I feel like it's a cop out and it cheapens the story.
In any case, I do recommend this book if anything for the humor and to marvel at the twisted lives of our much beloved nursery rhymes.